New Museum Exterior Being Built in Germantown

Future museum exterior panels. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Inspired by rural Wisconsin. Fabricated in suburban Germantown. Installed in downtown Milwaukee.

The concrete panels that will adorn the exterior of the new natural history are currently being formed in Germantown. Starting this summer, they’ll start making the trek to their permanent home.

The new museum going up at the corner of N. 6th Street and W. McKinley Avenue was designed to resemble one of Wisconsin’s majestic, rolling bluffs: there won’t be a right angle to be found on the entire exterior. The appearance will be achieved with 670 concrete panels, designed to connect directly to the steel frame of the building.

The new museum will replace the existing Milwaukee Public Museum, at 800 W. Wells St.

The exterior panels begin their life as a soupy grey mixture, resembling cottage cheese, pouring out of a large industrial cauldron at Stonecast Products, Inc., which specializes in architectural and precast stone. The mixture is poured directly onto a rebar frame, smoothed and cured.

Using 3D modeling for both the steel structure and the concrete panels, each piece is designed to fit in a specific place on the buildings exterior. They are built curved, straight, ridged and grooved. Some are big, others are massive. The longest is 40 feet. The heaviest approximately 56,000 pounds.

“After an extensive research and development phase, we presented a plan that maintained the integrity of the original design while ensuring a seamless production process,” said Mike Wilhelm, Stonecast Products Business Development Manager, during a tour Thursday.

The modeling even allows Stonecast, and its engineering contractor Element30, to include embedded elements for electricity and plumbing in exact spots on various pieces.

The new, 200,000-square-foot museum was designed by New York-based Ennead Architects and Milwaukee-based Kahler Slater. Mortenson Construction and ALLCON are leading the general contracting with the help of more than 30 subcontractors from southeastern Wisconsin. Another 40 Wisconsin-based contractors are working on design, administration and the packing of four million objects in the museum collections.

“Coordinating with their team, alongside our engineering and design partners, has been a seamless process thanks to cutting-edge modeling and meticulous planning,” said Kurt Theune, Mortenson Vice President & General Manager. “We are excited to see these panels installed and for visitors to experience how Wisconsin’s natural beauty is woven into the Museum’s very enclosure.”

The concrete exterior will begin going up this summer, and should be finished by the end of the year, said Katie Sanders, chief planning officer for MPM. Construction is on track to finish by the end of 2026 and the museum open by 2027.

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